Watching The Stars Together
by We Stole Vodka From The Optic
Summary: 100 Drabbles about Wizard and Hikari. 100/100
1. Observer

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 1: Observer

The Wizard was a keen observer. And the fact made Hikari feel vaguely as if she were a bug being thoroughly scrutinized as they sat across from each other at the dinner table. The cooking, this time, was hers, and Hikari was trying to pick through the salad quietly as Wizard simply observed her.

Truthfully, it was beginning to get annoying. She looked up at him, and he looked down, picking through her salad over-eagerly with a fork.

She looked down.

He looked back up at her and observed.

Hikari slammed the dinner table, with both fists, resulting in clinking silverware and a dinner roll falling to the ground.

"Okay!" She forgot what she was going to say and gaped at him, wide-eyed, like a brainless calf.

"…Okay…?" The Wizard tilted his head to the side.

Hikari wondered why he could be so infuriating sometimes.


	2. Redundancy

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 2: Redundancy

For some, brilliant, unknown reason, Hikari had decided that the redundancy of her bringing Wizard Fugue Mushrooms all the time was just getting a little too… redundant. After all, she had read in _Farmin' Gal's Weekly _that men didn't like redundancy. And, last Hikari had checked, Wizard was fully male. Very male. Just not over-testosterone Kinda-Like-Owen male. But still male.

She double-checked, looking out the window as her husband dutifully watered her cabbages. Yep. He was male. She was now completely, and totally sure.

And, for another, brilliant, unknown reason Hikari had decided that the best gift to bring him would be Squid Ink Spaghetti. She couldn't quite remember, but she recalled something in Wizard's likes and dislikes list about squid and octopus. It didn't really matter. There was a fifty-fifty chance of her completely screwing this up.

Hikari shrugged. Eh, it was good enough. It didn't matter that a black cat crossed her path that morning and she had accidentally dropped a hand mirror. Nor did it matter that she was too lazy to double-check Wizard's likes and dislikes. She'd be okay.

So, after a whole hour of trying to perfect the darned Squid Ink Spaghetti, she presented it to her husband at dinner, with a foolish grin and a stupid expression on her face.

Wizard stared at the dish in his hands, going slightly green at the realization that it was _squid. Ew. _And the fact that it didn't even look edible. (Hikari had destroyed the recipe. Butchered in fact with her experimenting.)

However, Wizard put on his best, uncaring grin and thanked her, "Thank… you…" The fumes of the disgusting dish were getting to him now. "It's so… sweet of you…"

Wizard passed out, while Hikari was beaming from his praise not knowing that she had succeeded in sending an immortal to his death.


	3. Teaching

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 3: Teaching

The tomes laid out on their kitchen table seemed infinite in numbers, piling over and over on top of each other until the mass majority of those thick books bent and groaned from the weight of all the other books. Hikari sat there on the chair, mouth completely agape, fingers twitching and skin paling at the sheer sight of _all those books._

Wizard, who was in the chair next to hers, studied Hikari's face with the calmest, most placid expression on his own face. As if all those books were nothing to him. As if they didn't bother him at all.

"All… these…?" Hikari was twitching. She would have to read and study _all _of those to learn magic? Her body convulsed out of sheer anxiety. Back in school, Hikari hated studying, and would often cram for tests the night before. A trait which usually resulted in a big fat D the day after.

She regretted asking Wizard to teach her magic.

"Yes…" Wizard's voice pulled her out of her uneasy scruples. "We'll go… slow. Study two books at a time…"

"_Two!" _Wizard flinched at her loud voice. Hikari surveyed the tall mound of books with the expression of a deer caught in headlights. "Two at the same _time!"_

"My Master…" The mound of books creaked and wheezed as Wizard continued, "He would… make me study four… at a time…"

Wizard placed a hand under his chin, contemplating. "If you want… we can do that too… it would be more challenging… for you…"

Hikari _really _regretted asking him to teach her.


	4. Fancy

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 4: Fancy

Hikari's first impression of the Wizard?

Not good.

When she saw him come down those stairs, away from his telescope, asking her who she was and why she was there, Hikari's first impression of him was most certainly not a good one.

"_What a fancy-lookin' pansy."_

Yes. It was not a good impression. Not even an accurate one. But that had been her first impression and first impressions were everything weren't they?

She didn't like fancy.

She liked Wizard, though.


	5. Immerse

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 5: Immerse

There was something incredibly immersive about Wizard's eyes, Hikari noticed. He had the most beautiful eyes. One that was a deep, ochre and the other a strong, gorgeous color of wintergreen. She watched him as the man drank coffee slowly from a still-steaming cup, a tome balanced precariously on one knee.

Hikari smiled.

He was so beautiful.


	6. Overmaster

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 6: Overmaster

A lover's tiff was never a good thing.

"Will you _say something _already?" A stamped foot, an angry glare. Both indicators of an angry person. In this case, the person was Hikari. The poor person on the receiving end of her stamped foot and angry glare was the Wizard who simply stared at her as if he had no idea what to do.

He looked away, and continued to clean the counters.

"You need to stand up for yourself!" Hikari moved closer towards him, their shoulders touching. "I can't believe you just let Cathy insult you like that! You're not a doormat!"

He scrubbed away, as if ignoring her, focusing on making the tan counters shiny and sparkly clean. Hikari grabbed his elbow, wrenching Wizard away from the sponge and the counter.

"Yes… I can…" Was his morose reply. He refused to meet her gaze.

"No, you can't." Hikari had managed to calm down, her brown eyes pleading. "Please… please just stand up for yourself…"

"If it will… make you happy…"

"I _am _happy. I'm happy because I'm with _you." _She pressed a kiss to his tanned cheek, just below his permanent tattoo. "I want _you _to be happy. I want people to accept you for who you are: A Wizard."

She said the magic words, "Gale… please."


	7. Fainter

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 7: Fainter

Hikari wasn't entirely sure what had happened. Perhaps she'd used her hammer a little too much. Perhaps her massive amount of crops was just too hard to water. Perhaps the trees in Fugue Forest were proving to be a little too resilient.

In the end though, she had somehow managed to find herself passed out on the tiny road leading up to her farm. The warmth of the earth was hot against her chilled skin, and the summer sun was baking her back. She couldn't remember anything. Not. A. Single. Thing.

What she could remember, what Hikari could barely recall, was two arms lifting her up, holding her bridal style. She could also vaguely recall, being hurried away by a chilly body with sun-kissed skin. She remembered soothing words whispered in an ancient tongue, and the feeling of an ice patch being pressed against her forehead.

Hikari also remembered the soft, silky covers of the bed, and the towering bookshelves.


	8. Auxiliary

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 8: Auxiliary

She cried into his shoulder and he simply held her, arms tightening around her waist. He didn't like it when she cried, there was always something about her tears, the way she carried on like this for a few days before regressing back into her usual, kind, happy self.

Hikari was prone to bouts of depression, and an offhand comment or cruel word choice could send her into a frenzy of tears.

And he, Wizard, always played the part of the supportive husband and held her as she cried bitter, sad tears.

He pressed a kiss to her soft cheek, whispered reassuring words in her ear. He was auxiliary, supportive.


	9. Animals

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 9: Animals

"Give me that." Placing her hand over his, Hikari situated the brush back on the cow, Maribelle, who had by then glared angrily at Wizard. Wizard, who stood beside Hikari, shot his wife a longing glance, frowning.

"You move it like this…" She moved his hand with her own hand. "You need to move it in the way the fur goes. It's like cutting roast. You can't go against the grain, it irritates the animals."

Wizard smiled at his wife, and gave her a sharp peck on the cheek. Hikari, in turn, giggled lightly and turned towards him, the animal brush falling to the ground with a small thud. Hikari pressed her lips to his own, smiling happily in what one would call marital bliss.

Maribelle mooed in protest, out of jealousy.


	10. Gift

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 10: Gift

He wasn't supposed to love her. Immortals weren't supposed to even love. Wizard brushed people off, set up indestructible walls that prevented people from getting close to him. And yet, Hikari had done just that. She had rattled his indestructible walls and cool disposition with a single, seemingly innocuous thing.

A gift.

Wizard, in all his centuries of living and breathing, had never before received a gift. The idea of a gift seemed silly to him. Why give someone something that they could've gotten on their own terms? And yet, Hikari had given him something.

The Fugue Mushroom, rare and delicately spotted, was held in her hands like a precious gift. Hikari smiled, a friendly smile, and Wizard took it, stammering his thanks and professing his love for purple mushrooms that gave off a weird glow.

The gift had rattled him, and he thought about it as he went to sleep that night. Perhaps Hikari had given him the mushroom in want of something in return? Perhaps Hikari had desired a trade, and had said nothing to give Wizard time to find the perfect trade?

It didn't occur to Wizard, not at the time at least, that it was a gift given out of flirtation and interest. Such things as love or caring hadn't occurred to him.

He knew Hikari loved Morning Glorys, and never missed an opportunity to plant them in her fields. So, the next morning after mulling over what to give Hikari in trade for the Fugue Mushroom, Wizard stood outside her house with a bouquet of Morning Glorys.

It was a trade, and nothing else. At least, to Wizard. At first. Other ideas came to him.

To Hikari, it had been a gift.

That was the start of their gradual love, as screwed up as it might sound.


	11. Bella

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 11: Bella

The book landed on Hikari's lap. The farmer blinked at it, colorlessly, before grinning that mischievous grin of hers.

"You finished it!" She announced, though there was no need to, of course. Wizard was twitching, and there seemed to be a furious sort of anger in his boat lights that immediately shut poor Hikari up.

"Never… again…" He pointed at the book, at the bland black cover. Two pale arms stood in contrast to the darkness, and the palms held a deep red apple. "That was… awful..."

Hikari shot him a knowing grin, as if this had been her plan all along, to throw a book so riddled with clichés and flat characters at him, for the prospect of seeing how he would react. Personally, Hikari had expected lightning bolts and fiery eyes. Alas, you couldn't always get what you want.

"Really?" Her voice held a mocking tone to it. "I always thought that Edward reminded me of you."

At this Wizard turned pale. "I… verbally abuse… you…? I… sparkle…?"

"It's hard not to notice." She crossed her legs. "You have to squint _real hard."_


	12. Pumpkin

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 12: Pumpkin

"What… are you… doing?" Wizard drawled out every word, watching his wife wield the kitchen's sharpest knife with eerie exactness. Hikari raised the knife above her head, high, and with the craziest, most maniacal grin she could muster, Hikari plunged the knife…

Into the head of a pumpkin, cackling lightly as if she were someone being prepared to be wrapped in a straitjacket. The sight… frightened Wizard just the tiniest bit. And he was not someone that got scared easily.

Hikari turned her head around to glance at her husband before turning back to her… masterpiece. She took the knife and cut a hole into the top of the pumpkin, still smiling that crazy smile.

"Making Jack-o-lanterns!" She answered, placing the cut off piece of the pumpkin beside her. She stretched her arms above her, and then sunk her fingers into gooey, disgusting and gross-smelling pumpkin guts.

Wizard simply stood there in his ornate clothes, staring at her.

"Jack… o-lanterns?"

At this, Hikari looked back at him a second time, mouth agape. "You've never heard of Jack-o-lanterns!"

Wizard blushed lightly, out of embarrassment and he avoided her gaze slightly. Hikari padded the floor beside her, smiling.

"Here, come sit beside me! Help me make some!"


	13. Coffee

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 13: Coffee

Wizard looked up at his wife, with a slightly horrified expression. Hikari, who was closing her eyes, smiled simply at him, her finger curled around a tray. Sitting on the tray were two mugs and inside those mugs was… Hikari's _coffee._

To say that Wizard disliked his wife's cooking would be an understatement. He was _terrified _of her cooking. Her spaghetti, her teas, her sashimi… all of it had a tendency to be burned or turned into an inedible, undistinguishable pile of _mush._

And her coffee, oh by the Harvest King, her coffee was the _worst. _

"Here," She said, placing the tray on the table in front of him. "I made us a pot of coffee."

She looked at him eagerly, and Wizard felt distantly like a guinea pig trapped inside of a cage.

"I… I could have made it…" After the first night of eating dinner as husband and wife, Wizard had taken it upon himself to handle all the domestic duties. Be it sewing, cleaning, cooking. He'd told her she could handle the work.

"You've been studying all day!" She waved it off as if it were nothing. "It was the least I could do!"

She watched him again, and Wizard stared at it, his eyebrows stitching together.

"I'll… wait for it to… cool." He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he wanted her to go away so he could do something with the cup.

Hikari moved towards the chair in front of him, sitting down, and propped her elbow onto the table so she could watch him.

He stared at her.

She stared at him.


	14. Pet

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 14: Pet

Hikari held up the turtle.

"No…" Wizard responded. The two of them had gone outside, hand-in-hand, with Hikari saying that she wanted to show him something. Upon lifting a variety of pets up, the current one being a rather lethargic-looking turtle, Wizard had grumbled. Why did they need a pet? They didn't even have a house big enough for children yet!

She held up the black cat.

"No…" Where was she getting all of these animals?

Finally, with a determined smile, Hikari held up the snake.

Wizard deadpanned. He shuddered, and then began to quickly walk away. Hikari chased after him, snake in hand, and Wizard began to run faster.

He didn't like snakes.


	15. Reach

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 15: Reach

Wizard looked at Hikari with bewildered eyes, accepting the gift she'd given him. The cup of coffee was still warm, despite the fact that she'd delivered it in the middle of a storm. As the cup was passed to him, their fingers touched, briefly and Wizard actually felt his cheeks flush.

As an Immortal, he had tried, viciously, to give up any hope of living a normal life, with anyone. Emotions, though tangible and wonderful, were something he had to give up, to live forever. And yet, this Hikari, this light of a girl, had come into his life as quickly as if he'd never built up walls around his heart in the first place.

Hikari smiled one of those happy smiles, and politely said goodbye. Wizard watched her leave, admired the back of her head, and the curls of hair, and saw a glimpse of smooth, pale skin there, somewhere. He looked down at his fingers, at the place where he and Hikari had touched at first, and frowned.

He wasn't supposed to love. To have affection. To like.

And yet Hikari had reached his hidden, well-concealed heart with such ease.

It confused him. Bewildered him. Mocked him.


	16. Birth

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 16: Birth

When Wizard had held their daughter, Cecaniah, for the first time, he had marveled at her beautiful green eyes and thin, barely-there silver hair. She was a cute little baby, with his coloring but Hikari's face, and Wizard had fallen in love with their baby girl.

He read to her every night when she was four, tucked underneath baby blue sheets, and Hikari would watch and listen from the crack in the door, a large, satisfied smile on her face.

This was one such night.

"Little… Nutbrown Hare… who was going to bed… held on tight to Big Nutbrown Hare's very long ears…"

Cecaniah squirmed underneath the sheets, half-hiding her grin and watching her father with wide eyes. Wizard looked at her, the thin book balanced in his lap, and admired his daughter. It was amazing how energetic she was, how full of spontaneity… it was something she surely didn't get from him.

He continued, looking down at the book, unaware of Hikari who was looking through the door at her husband and child.

"He wanted to be sure… that Big Nutbrown Hare was listening… 'Guess how much I love you,' he said…"

Wizard continued on, until Cecaniah was fast asleep in her little bed, her hair barely visible beneath the covers. Hikari was now leaning against the doorframe, smiling a serene, happy smile, watching as Wizard stood up, placing the book back in its place beside Cecaniah's nightstand, kissing his daughter goodnight on the forehead.

When he turned around, he jumped upon seeing Hikari there.

Hikari walked up to him, placed a kiss on his cheek, and whispered good night.

* * *

**Whomever guesses what the title of the book Wizard reads to Cecaniah is called, gets an e-cookie.**


	17. Death

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 17: Death

Hikari's small, dainty hand was clasped within his own. Her eyes were shut, tightly, she was writhing underneath the covers, as if subdued by some unreachable nightmare. The farmer opened her mouth, emitting a silent scream and… and…

Wizard sat there beside her, in a rickety old wooden chair, looking at her with pained eyes. He clasped onto her hand tightly, refusing to let go even when she had dug her fingernails into the edges of his skin, drawing blood and creating scabs that had since healed over.

He knew this was bound to happen. Cecaniah and Orion had been sent outside. They did not need to see their mother in pain, did not need to realize that slowly, little-by-little, they were losing her to a disease that not even the now-aged Jin could diagnose. Times had passed, seasons had changed, events had transpired and though Hikari had gotten older and their children had grown, Wizard had remained the same, an unchanging immortal.

Hikari's brown eyes cracked open, and she gasped wildly for air, her fingers clutching Wizard's as if they were a precious gem. She gestured for the water on the nightstand, and Wizard handed it to her, willing himself to not cry as his wife shook and shivered with every gasping breath.

He knew.


	18. Sleep

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 18: Sleep

Hikari's head was pressed against the kitchen table, a small novel placed next to her, half-opened. Wizard frowned, shutting the front door behind him. Had she stayed up for him again? Truly, Hikari worried too much. He'd only gone to do some research in Fugue Forest, look for Fugue Mushrooms, and he needed to ask where she had been able to find them.

Wizard sighed, placing his rucksack beside the door, and he walked over to his wife, smiling slightly as he stared upon her calm visage. She looked so calm, so placid when she was sleeping, all the worries of scrounging up money for their little farm gone and dead. He pondered what she was dreaming about, as he brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

The rancher's eyes fluttered, and she yawned loudly, before looking up at her husband with sleepy, vacant eyes,

"Wizard…?" She never called him by his real name, and he didn't mind. He had no need for a name, and love didn't require names. "Are you home…?"

"Yes…" He said. "Sorry… for waking… you up…"

She just smiled at him, that worried crease pressed between her eyebrows once more.


	19. Present

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 19: Present

Wizard had never really understood Christmas. It seemed rather pointless to set aside a day to exchange presents. People gave each other presents all the time, often in the form of food like Herbal Tea, Coffee or Squid Spaghetti. Though the latter was something Wizard would rather avoid like the plague.

But it made Hikari happy. She hummed joyously to herself, hung up tinsel and ornaments, set a tree, put Cecaniah in some cute little outfit and disappeared in the middle of the day. Where she went, Wizard did not know, but she surprisingly left Cecaniah home with him.

When she returned with an armful of wrapped presents, smiling and grinning and explaining that she had just been over at Candace's house and wrapped presents.

He had never understood Christmas. Not at all.


	20. New

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 20: New

The moon dipped low beneath the clouds. Wizard held Hikari's hand quietly, a wan smile spread across his lips. They stood outside the church, looking out at the ocean, admiring the reflections painted upon its midnight surface. They'd been married for no longer than a week, and when the New Year had come around…

It brought many feelings with it. Tension. Excitement, at starting a new life together. Wizard had thought he could, or would, never love. Had once believed love to be fleeting, irrelevant to his life as an immortal. When he met Hikari, however… the girl had awakened feelings within him, feelings he thought he couldn't feel.

Hikari had not expected to love Wizard. But there was something about him that was marvelously mysterious, endearing. He was like the very moon out on the horizon, reflecting upon the ever-changing surface of the ocean. As unreachable as Wizard was, he was surprisingly close as well.

As the moon rose higher and higher into the sky with every passing moment, the couple leaned against the balcony, and contemplated their new life together.


	21. Dream

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 21: Dream

* * *

The flames swallowed him. Wizard screamed, his arms waving wildly, though he found that he could not move them. They were… glued to his sides, numb, lost to his senses. He twisted against his restraints but the flames still engulfed him, still lapped viciously at his cheeks and arms like a whip, cracking and snapping against his skin.

He could hear their – the townsfolk's – jeers, their screams.

"_Burn the Wizard, burn the Wizard, burn the Wizard!" _

It reached his ears, piercing his eardrums, pounding against them like one does to a drum. Again, again and again.

"_Burn the Wizard, burn the Wizard-"_

At this point, burning and burning, he wished he could die. Anything to make the pain stop.

"_Burn the Wizard, burn the-"_

Anything.

"_Burn the-"_

"Wizard!" There was a new voice, a lighter one, not filled with mockery. It reminded him of a seraph, an angel whose wings spread out in six directions. The flames ebbed, the pain disappeared and Wizard shot upwards, grasping the sheets, his fingers tangled in their uncomfortable warmth. Hikari gasped, her eyes widening as her husband shook in fear.

He turned his head, looking at her with fearful eyes. Wizard could still hear their screams, their laughs as they burned the man they'd perceived to be a threat. Hikari hugged him, and Wizard nestled his head in the crook of her shoulder.

The nightmares never stopped.


	22. Family

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 22: Family

He had never had a family before. The word itself seemed foreign to him. Being an immortal, being able to live forever, demanded that he not have a family. Doing so would bring too much pain, too much… sorrow.

And yet, as he watched his daughter and wife play amongst the fields of their farm, smiling because he could do nothing else but smile…

The sorrow would've been worth having a family. Would've been worth meeting Hikari and falling in love with her.


	23. Spring

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 23: Spring

"What's your… favorite flower?"

Hikari put down the empty vase, blinking. She looked over her shoulder at Wizard, who was staring down at one of his books, eyes narrowed, as though he were deep in thought.

"Um… Morning Glories. Why?"

"I was… wondering…"

And with that he continued to peruse his book, and Hikari returned to cleaning the house, wiping it down thoroughly, wondering why Wizard had asked such a question. It was the day before the beginning of Spring, and the two had been prepared to spend the New Year's together.

The next morning, on the first day of Spring, Hikari awoke to find a single Morning Glory sitting in the vase, which had been empty the day before.

The day after that, on the second day, there was a second Morning Glory. Hikari wondered where they had come from, as she hadn't planted any of the flowers yet. With questioning eyes, she had looked to her husband for answers.

"One… for every day of spring…" He had answered her, smiling slightly. "You said… it was your favorite…"

"That's… you didn't have to…" Hikari smiled, stuttering, and then she hugged him. "That's so sweet of you!"


	24. Summer

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 24: Summer

"Hey… Father."

Wizard looked up from his book at his daughter, Cecaniah. She was a teenager now, getting into her studies with the same enthusiasm as her father. She was washing dishes at the moment, completing her chores like the diligent daughter their family had raised her to be. She was looking at her father with scrutinizing eyes.

"Yes… Cici?" He asked, using that nickname he'd given to her when she was but a small baby.

"How about you and Mother go on a picnic tomorrow? It's Summer. The weather's nice. And you need to get out of the house once in a while." She scrubbed mercilessly at a pale pink dish, trying to rid it of the lasagna they'd had last night. At least Wizard thought it was lasagna. You could never tell with Hikari's cooking.

"That sounds like… an excellent… idea." He replied, and it truly was. He needed to get out of the house, and Hikari had wanted to go on another family picnic for ages.

Cecaniah grinned, a grin she'd gotten entirely from her mother. It was hard for her father to crack a smile.

For some reason, he just knew she was planning something.

His daughter was ever the cunning one.


	25. Fall

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 25: Fall

Their second child, Orion, had been born in the Fall.

Though he wouldn't admit it, he'd been pleased with the prospect of having a boy. It evened out the numbers in the house. And he wouldn't feel so outnumbered by Hikari and Cecaniah. He could teach Orion to study the stars, and to read books, and to follow in the footsteps of his father.

It was a shame that his son turned out to be anything but studious. Orion was reckless. He ran in the dirt, irritated the animals, rode the horses, played pranks on the townspeople and still, _still _he would even go so far as to irritate his sister.

"He's… a lot… like you…" Wizard commented, and Hikari laughed. The two of them were ignoring the loud fight between Cecaniah and Orion upstairs. They always sorted it out by themselves.

"Yep. And Cecaniah is a lot like you."


	26. Winter

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 26: Winter

"Orion… is missing…"

The teacup that had been in Hikari's delicate hands fell to the ground. Cecaniah looked up from her novel with wide eyes. Wizard stood in the doorway, breathing heavily, shaking as though he were incredibly afraid. The teacup shattered, shards scattering every which way. Their collie, Hilde, lifted his head sleepily from his bed.

"Missing?" Hikari began to shake, just as Wizard was. Hilde, sensing something was about to happen, barked angrily. "What do you mean missing!"

It was night. Outside, the snow fell like falling angels, cast from heaven.

The three members of their family, and Hilde, looked around outside, calling out for Orion desperately, their voices strained with the flanging of their throats, the screaming. Cecaniah and Hilde scoured the area around Fugue Forest, Hikari and Wizard searched desperately in the mine district.

"Orion!" Hikari yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Orion, where are you?"

"Mom…" Wizard had heard the soft voice, and ran towards the carts. Orion dangled from the edge of the cliff, crying, his fingers digging into the side of it. Wizard let out a small gasp, scooped up his freezing son, just as Hikari joined them.

The two of them cried with the revelation that they were so close to losing their youngest son.


	27. Lost

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 27: Lost

A parent should never have to bury their children.

He stands, alone and guarded by the single birch tree in the graveyard. It's white bark is stark against the darkness of his clothes. The funeral procession is quiet, save for a droll old priest reciting things that no one really paid attention to, and the people crowded around the gold filigree coffin. Wizard can see Orion clearly from this vantage point. He stands there, old and wizened, holding the hands of his grandchildren and children.

Orion's hair had lost its luster and thickness long ago, and yet Wizard could see him as only the little reckless boy.

He doesn't want to think of Cecaniah, of her pale, thin body within the coffin. To think of his beautiful daughter, now dead because of a frail heart… no, she never had a weak heart. She was never weak-hearted. Hikari was never weak-hearted either.

Orion clutches his crying grandson's hand. The grandson takes after him, Wizard notices, he has those same wild eyes, that unruly silver hair. And yet, the boy does not cry. He had cried immensely when Hikari had died all those years ago…

Wizard lowered his head, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. He doesn't want to think about them. He missed them so. He missed his family so. He didn't want to live anymore, not while his daughter and wife were dead, not while his son had naught but a few years left in him, and yet he was cursed with this… with immortality.

_Yes, a parent should never have to bury their children._


	28. Name

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 28: Name

"Gale… my name is Gale…"

Hikari held his hand. They were cold, she noticed, like frozen, spindly pieces of ice within her hands. They stood outside the church, her in her pale white wedding dress and him in his nicer clothes. Gale. Wizard's name… his real name… was Gale.

"That's a nice name…" She whispered. "Gale."

Wizard reached forward and brushed his lips against her forehead, and then pressed them against her lips. He could pick out each and every hair that curled out from her big brown eyes, and the two stared at each other, sharing something intimate in front of the church.

"I… love… you…" He told her, pulling away, rubbing her hands with his forefinger. The cold air bit at them.

"I love you, too," She embraced him, curling her arms around his neck. She kissed the olive skin of his neck, the silvery strands of his hair tickling her. "Gale."


	29. Valentine

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 29: Valentine

Roses.

He brought her roses.

"I…" The bouquet of crimson roses felt heavy and tremulous in her hands, and Wizard looked away, blushing outside of her home. She hadn't expected a gift, not at all. "I don't know what to say, Wizard…"

No one had ever given her roses before.

"I… wasn't sure… what kind of… flowers to get you…" Wizard told her, he looked everywhere except at her, too embarrassed to say anything. "I wasn't even… sure if you liked… flowers but… there was no chocolate at… Simon's…"

"These are perfect. I love them." She hugged him, smiling into the folds of his clothes. "Happy Valentine's Day, Wizard."

"Happy… Valentine's…"


	30. Crystal

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 30: Crystal

It was one of those rare days that Hikari spent more than a few moments within his home that she posed a rather intriguing question.

"Wizard?" She asked, bent over one of his strange little silver curios, watching in amazement. He turned from his work to look at her, frowning as she began to play with his property.

"Yes…?"

"Can you see your own heart in your crystal ball?" She put the curio back down, and turned to him, her big eyes questioning and curious within their sockets. Wizard looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

"I've never… tried."

"Oh."

After another half an hour of the two of them talking about different things, (Though Hikari did most of the talking), she left, returning to her own work and him returning to his. However, no matter how hard he tried to get back into his work, he could not get her question out of his head.

Could he see his own heart in the crystal ball?

At night, Wizard bent over the ball, his hands touching the smooth stone. He peered into it with all the cautiousness of a doctor, and looked for his own heart. It took a moment, and his fingers tingled as the magic worked within the crystal and eventually, a face swam into view.

He saw her big brown eyes.


	31. Rival

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 31: Rival

Another emotion that Wizard had never had the… _pleasure _of feeling was jealousy.

He knew. He knew of the fisherman's affections for Hikari, Toby's affections for the brown-eyed girl. He knew of the gifts Toby gave her, the talks they had, the gifts she gave to him. Wizard didn't like Toby. He saw the white-haired man in the same way someone would see a rival.

A rival for Hikari's affections.


	32. First

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 32: First

His lips touched hers, and there was a spark there. Something he'd never felt there. Hikari's lips were like pillows, so soft, so warm, and so wonderful. Pink, like cherry blossoms, and just as beautiful. She held his hands in hers, interlacing their fingers, reveling in the moment they had before the church. His head tilted to the side, looking for something deeper, something more intimate.

Hikari allowed him access, a blush forming across the apple of her cheeks. His tongue dueled with hers, and there was something sloppy in the way they kissed, something inexperienced and uneducated in the ways of love and kissing.

He was her first.

And she was his.


	33. Time

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 33: Time

The first year of their marriage had been spectacular. They had reveled in the companionship of each other, had enjoyed the breakfasts, all cooked primarily by Wizard as he didn't trust Hikari not to kill him with her cooking, and had flirted with the idea of having a child.

And all of it culminated to this: Their anniversary.

Raising a glass, filled with tea, they toasted to a year spent well.

As those years continued on, and the anniversaries became less filled with youthful energy, Wizard watched as their time marred his beautiful wife's face. Wrinkles were creased against her forehead, circles underneath her big brown eyes became more prevalent, and the light in those eyes just not as naïve or bright.

Raising a glass, filled with tea, they toasted to a life spent well.


	34. Bathwater

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 34: Bathwater

Their morning habits always collided.

He liked to take baths in the morning. She ate breakfast first thing in the morning before brushing her teeth. And when Wizard bathed, he took long baths. There was something luring about the warmth of the water as he moved and twisted in it, something similar to being suspended on a string like a small doll, never allowed to touch the ground beneath him. In the water, alone, he could _think._

Naturally, the collision of their morning ablutions was one that could not be avoided. The first day they began their new life, entering the realm known solely as wedded bliss, Hikari had walked right in on him while Wizard was taking a bath.

There was a small duck floating in the water, and the red tinge on his cheeks threatened to overtake his olive skin as Hikari stood in the doorway, a finger pressed to her lips because she was trying to get the cereal out from the gap in her bottom teeth.

"I…" Hikari began, flushing. "Sorry! Sorry! I'll come back later!" And she had turned around and slammed the door behind her.

Wizard blinked, shrugged, and began to prod the ducky in the bathwater with a long, thin finger.

Why Hikari had a duck in her bathtub was completely unknown to him.


	35. Child

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 35: Child

Wizard picked up the picture that sat on the endtable. There was a small girl, holding the hands of her two parents, smiling up at the camera with missing teeth. Her long brown hair was pulled into curly, bouncy pigtails, and she looked more like her father than her mother. It took Wizard a while to realize that the little girl in question was Hikari.

"Is… this… you…?" He asked, showing her the picture as she sat in the kitchen, reading the paper. A nostalgic smile crossed over her face as she took the picture from him, holding delicately, like one would hold a piece of treasure.

"Yeah. That's my mom and dad and that's me…" She was looking at the plaid skirt the littler version of her wore, with slight distaste. "That was my first day at school. I had to go to a private school and wear these horrible uniforms." She stuck out her tongue, as though the very thought of wearing that skirt made her sick. "Worst. School. Ever."

"You were… cute… as a child…" Wizard said, and Hikari blushed slightly, scoffing.


	36. Light

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 36: Light

Her name meant light.

It was fitting, for her. All those years Wizard had spent alone, without care for other people… those were years spent in darkness. Wizard pulled her closer, listened to the rhythm of her beating heart against his ears, and the soft sniffling she did in her sleep.

It wasn't right, for him to love. He was immortal. He would hurt her. He would never be with her for eternity. But he couldn't lose her. Not now, not when they were in love…

Not when she was his light in the darkness.


	37. Clover

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 37: Clover

It was strange, the way she doted over her lucky charm. Hikari carried with her, always, a small medallion with a four-leaf-clover sealed in it. When she was worried, her thumb would run over it constantly. When she was thinking, she would place it on her bottom lip, like it were a button sealing shut her lips.

Other times, she would give it a wary glance.

"When… did you get… that…?" He asked her, once. She touched it, rubbing it between her forefingers.

"My dad gave it to me, when I was little." She grinned at him. "He told me it was lucky, and said if I kept it, I'd get anything I wanted."

Wizard looked at her, curiously, but smiled to himself.

She did get everything she wanted.


	38. Gamer

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 38: Gamer

Hikari's sudden obsession with video games worried Wizard. Even now, she sat, mouth open, eyes bulging as she curled in front of the television with a bag of chips at her side, the little Xbox controller held tightly within her grasp, as though letting go of it would deprive her of all life. Wizard, who was enjoying a rather spectacular novel about a boy wizard who went to a strange school, finally let himself be drawn to the screen, curious to see what had elicited such _giggling _from her.

"—_But I'm still a man, you can't expect me to resist forever." _On the screen, there was a blond-haired man speaking to a girl who looked suspiciously like Hikari. He wore robes, with feathered shoulders.

Hikari peered at the screen, before clicking one of the buttons. The Hikari look-a-like responded, _"How long will it take before I drive you mad?"_

Suddenly, the feathered man yanked the look-a-like towards him, pressing his lips to hers. Wizard sat, in shock, a sudden fury boiling slightly in his stomach as the two parted, and the blond man pressed his head against the look-a-like's.

"_If we could die, tomorrow, I didn't want it to be without doing that."_

"What…" Wizard's voice made Hikari's head swivel around in surprise, and she jumped slightly too. "What are… you playing…?"

"I, er…" Hikari sounded a bit flustered, and a blush tainted her cheeks. "_Dragon Age 2, _it's an RPG, with romantic elements and… uh…"

"Why… does your… avatar look like you… and…" He unconsciously glared at the blond guy, who was smiling contentedly at the screen as he awaited an answer. "Who is… that?"

"He's a wizard!" She said, quickly.

* * *

**Yeah. I've been playing waaay too much Dragon Age. Here's a way of showing my obsession.**


	39. Green

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 39: Green

The parade floats waded through Harmonica Town, great big vessels with green streamers and adorned with clovers. Around them was the cry of the crowd, the giggling of children, the drinking of the bar's finest liquors.

Together they stood, hand-in-hand, watching as the floats moved on.

Together they were, forever.


	40. Consolation

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 40: Consolation

The third child they had lost.

Her fingers tangled in the bed sheets, Doctor Jin offering what little condolences he could, holding a clipboard awkwardly in his hands, Hikari felt the area in front of her blue wildly. Jin left them, shooting Hikari a final, sorry glance, the door clicking shut behind him. Orion and Cecaniah were at home, too young to understand the concept of stillbirth, or weakness or loss.

Wizard reached for her hand, and finally, Hikari let the tears fall.

It had been a boy, Jin had said. A boy who would never know his parents, or his siblings. A boy who would never grow up on the farm or play with the other kids, or fall in love.

Wizard's hand was uncomfortably cold in her own, and hers was white-hot in his.


	41. Thin

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 41: Thin

Hikari nibbled nervously at her bottom lip, turning around and around in front of the mirror, feeling decidedly, for the first time in a long while, _fat. _She touched her stomach, grimacing at the slight pudginess that was there, a remnant of her baby bump.

Wizard, who had been watching her prance about anxiously in front of the mirror, asked, "What's… wrong…?"

The farmer looked at him, with big pained eyes, as though someone had thrown her into a meat grinder and ground her into a little meat pie. She looked back at the mirror, at the not-her, fingertips brushing against the outline of her stomach.

"N-nothing!" She said, quickly, too quickly. "I'm just… uh… admiring myself!"

Wizard looked unconvinced, and looked back down at the cup of lemon tea he was holding in his hands. There seemed to be a small blush on his cheeks.

"You're… not fat…" He whispered. "You're… beautiful just the… way you are…"


	42. Happy

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 42: Happy

Wizard could not exactly say he had ever been truly happy in his life. He'd grown up in a small village, his parents dead at a young age, and he'd been carted off to family after family until one day they discovered his talents and kicked him out onto the street.

And even when he'd been found by the Master, curled inside a small cave, shivering and wrapped in a ragged blanket, the Master had always been distant. There was never any time for camaraderie between student and teacher.

It was always, "Focus on your studies," or "Get me a cup of coffee."

When he met Hikari, his heart soared.

For the first time, he was truly happy.


	43. Hilde

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 43: Hilde

Orion had picked out the dog, in a frenzy of curious excitement and over-anxiousness.

To say that Wizard and Hikari's boy had fallen in love with the collie at first sight would be an understatement. Cecaniah, who had never cared much for dogs, she was a cat person, took no part in naming the puppy. She took to her room and curled onto the bed, drinking a cup of coffee and working on her homework.

"Maybe… Fido?" Hikari offered, as a name.

"No!" Orion, as if offended, held the puppy tight to him. The collie wagged her tail lazily, panting.

Wizard watched the spectacle with a bit of august in his eyes. He was amused.

"…Dog?" Hikari shrugged.

"No!" Orion stomped his foot. "She's a girl! We have to pick a girl name!"

Wizard, remembering a certain cat that had always bothered him when he was younger, the Master's cat. One who'd taken to attacking his ankles and biting his fingers, and was a ragged, scrawny little she-cat. Her name, was one he remembered easily, since he'd taken to yelling it to the rooftops whenever the cat bothered him.

"Is… Hilde… okay…?" He asked. Hikari and Orion both turned their heads to look at him. Hilde, the newly-named collie, barked in agreement.

"She likes that name!" Orion announced, raising Hilde high above his head. The puppy's tail wagged wildly. "Hilde, Hilde, Hilde!"

Hikari shot Wizard a thankful glance.


	44. Fatherhood

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 44: Fatherhood

Wizard supposed he should have seen this coming.

The day Cecaniah would have a boyfriend.

On the plus side, it was Jin and Anissa's son, Van. He was such a smart, dutiful boy.

Watching the two teenagers run out of the house, Cecaniah yelling a quick goodbye back to her mother and father, Hikari touched Wizard's hand. Wizard looked up at her, at the smiling face and listened to her reassuring words,

"They'll be fine, Gale."

Wizard, Gale, smiled just the tiniest bit, and nodded. He trusted his daughter.


	45. Camp

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 45: Camp

He's not sure how exactly, but Hikari had managed to convince him to go on a camping trip with her in Fugue Forest.

She failed to mention that she was afraid, terribly afraid, of the dark.

So, shivering in his arms, Wizard held her close as the sounds of whatever creatures prowled the forest at night moved about. Her eyes were squeezed tight, and her fingers dug into his bare skin, leaving little red mars in their wake. The arms around her body were lean, and comforting, as she battled vicariously with her phobia.

How silly she was.

How much he loved that silliness of hers.


	46. Funeral

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 46: Funeral

"Dust we are, and dust we become…" The words of the priest droned on; mere white noise in the wake of Wizard's sadness.

Cecaniah, a grown woman, now married to Van, clasped his hand. Orion, also now a grown man and a well sought-after bachelor, did the same, his green eyes watching his father worriedly. They stood beside a coffin, as did many of Hikari's friends and family, watching as Hikari was lowered into the ground.

Many people whispered their condolences. From Cathy, to Owen, to Van, to Gil, to even Toby. Wizard took it all in with a sour, placid expression and a feeling of having his heart ripped from his chest.

That night, he locked himself inside of his old house, and cried for a love lost.


	47. Piano

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 47: Piano

Hikari was washing the dishes, with Wizard at his normal spot at the table.

"Cecaniah wants to learn piano." She said, happily, a smile touching her lips as she washed the grime of day-old potatoes from a dish. "She's become pretty interested in music since you gave her that book. The one about Beethoven, and Mozart and Chopin."

"Piano…?" Wizard responded, vaguely, turning a page in his novel. "Should we… get one…?"

"We might have to move some stuff around," She replied; a wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows as she frowned. "I'm more worried about finding her a teacher. Do we even know anyone who plays the piano?"

Wizard placed the novel down, and scoffed, slightly, "I… can teach… her…"

Hikari, surprised, shot a glance over at her husband, "You know how to play the piano!" There was an excited little squeal in her voice, the kind of squeal that came with learning something new and interesting. Wizard nodded, giving her a rare smile.

When all was said and done, and they had moved a rather old piano into their home, Hikari watched as Wizard and Cecaniah sat side-by-side. Wizard's fingers brushed against the keys, reciting to his daughter all of the notes, all the motions that came with playing the piano.

She smiled and decided, not for the first time, that Wizard would remain always a mystery to her, begging to be unraveled.

**One-Hundred Reviews! Thank you all! (And a special, heartfelt thank you to Official Aburame Shino, who was the One-Hundreth reviewer!)**


	48. Dreamscape

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 48: Dreamscape

Sometimes, he wonders if this is all a dream. Some surreal, unreal and strange dream that he had fallen into. And if it were so, if his life with Hikari was all some horrid dream, he never wanted to wake up. Waking up while in her arms, or with her lips pressed to his, or while she spoke to him of simple things… such a thing would have destroyed Wizard.

It would have destroyed him more than anything, to realize his life was not real. To realize that everything he had built with his wife was not actuality.

When he cradles her in his arms as they sleep in their bed, he marvels at this strange little fear of his.


	49. Sleepless

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 49: Sleepless

Wizard found Cecaniah outside, staring up at the stars. It was late, incredibly late, past midnight to be exact, and Wizard could not muster the desire, nor need to scold her for leaving the house at such a late hour. There was nothing he could do, the memory of Hikari's death was a fresh scar on their hearts, something dragged open by the suddenness of the death.

"Cecaniah…" Whispered Wizard; he had come to do the exact thing she herself was doing: remember.

"I…" Cecaniah's shimmering, glistened with unshed tears, watched her father carefully. "I… couldn't sleep. I just…"

She was an adult now, had a home and husband of her own, but that night she spent with him and Orion, because they were a family. A family who had loved Hikari more than they could say.

"I'm… not… angry…" Came Wizard's reply. He stood beside his daughter, and looked up at the stars with her.

"You loved mother a lot, right?" She asked, bowing her head. She caught her lip between her teeth.

"More… than I… could ever say…"


	50. Snow

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 50: Snow

Wizard, and he had no idea how Hikari talked him into it, but he had realized she was very adept in talking him into things, decided just then, as the two sat on a ski lift, that he absolutely _hated _heights. Doing everything except looking down at the ground beneath him, Wizard tried to focus on Hikari's jovial face, practically glowing despite their precarious position.

Around them, it was snowing. A lot of people had traveled to this snowy island recently, many from Harmonica Town. He could pick out Toby and Renee not too far away, and Selena and Luke as well. They chatted happily, unlike Hikari and Wizard.

Probably because Wizard was too preoccupied with thoughts of how far down the ground was from his position.

It wasn't until the ski lift stopped abruptly, that they would talk. The bench they sat on lurched forward, and the two looked at each other, bewildered at the sudden stop.

Wizard buried his face in his hands and let out an uncharacteristic groan.


	51. Worries

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 51: Worries

Hikari worried about Wizard.

It was his quietness, she supposed, the way he would delve into topics and after a while stare into space. He never spoke of his past, of the things that bogged him or tortured him from the inside. And she had a feeling, but she's never been a good judge of character, that whatever had happened to him long ago had destroyed him. Had ravaged his mind and plagued his sleep.

Wizard worried about Hikari.

It was her naïveté, he supposed, the way she gave and gave and gave and expected nothing in return. She never spoke of cynical things or hate, she cared and liked, even if the townspeople were mean to her. And he had a feeling, but he couldn't tell, especially with Hikari, that she wanted nothing more than for everyone to be happy. And he worried that she would be disappointed.

They worried for one another.


	52. Sky

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 52: Sky

There was something about the sky that Hikari, at the moment, found so enthralling. She was leaning against the handle of her silver hoe, looking up at the clouds and the great blue traverse, and Wizard, who had been preparing to go and buy groceries, stopped himself to look at her.

With a heavy sigh, he went to stand beside her, catching her by surprise and making her jump.

"What… are you looking… at?" He asked. Her eyes danced a bit, with some secret he did not know, and her fingers rubbed the four-leaf-clover as she looked back up at the sky.

"The sky." As if it weren't completely obvious.

Hikari seemed to realize the silliness of her own answer, and she looked back at him, before pointing up at the sky, "Well, the clouds really. See that one? It looks kinda like a cow, doesn't it?"

Wizard looked up at the sky as well, and then, "It… looks like… a horse to me…"

"And that's what's so cool!" She said, explaining herself and the thrall the sky had made of her. She laid down the hoe she was propped against and moved a bit. "'Cause from this angle, it looks more like a horse to me, too."

"I… do not… get it." He was staring at her with a stare he reserved only for those belonging in the loony-bin.

Hikari was looking at him, smile wide with something happy, baleful, "I think it's interesting how you can see different things in the sky. Like if I brought Cecaniah out here, she might see a giraffe instead of a cow, or a horse. Or if Orion was here, he would see a bear, maybe. I was thinking about it, so I kinda got lost in the sky."

Wizard's gaze softened, ignoring whatever she just said, and instead focusing on the movements of her lips, of the way her hair moved in the slight breeze.


	53. Bullied

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 53: Bullied

Orion was incredibly quiet that week.

Quieter than Cecaniah even. He picked at his food, churned at it with a fork and went to school for those five days with a scowl darker than even one Wizard could pull.

"What do you think's wrong with him?" Asked Hikari, looking at Wizard with concern as he cleared off the table. Wizard, picking up Orion's plate, looked at her and said, in that same quiet voice of his,

"I'll… talk to… him…"

When Orion returned home from school that Friday, with Cecaniah in tow, bearing shiners and a single black eye, Hikari had gasped, taken him into the bathroom and cleaned him up with demands about who did this to him. Cecaniah refused to say anything, muttering something about promises and pride, and was sent immediately to her room.

Hikari taped band aids to scraped knees and elbows, and Wizard tried to square the truth from Cecaniah, but she wouldn't budge.

"Orion made me promise not to tell." Was her explanation, after each and every attempt at prying information from her.

When Orion was cleaned up, Wizard took the boy into the boy's room. Hikari said something about Wizard being more able to talk heart-to-heart with their son, about Orion being more willing to talk to him instead of her about the incident.

Orion held a rubix cube in his hand, fixating on it with no desire to look at the man that sat beside him on the bed.

"What… happened… today?" Wizard asked.

"I…" Orion choked, tears welled up in his mismatched eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Is someone… hurting you…?" Wizard put a hand on his son's shoulder, and Orion's eyes squeezed shut as he sobbed. He clung to his father, and wept into his clothes, and Wizard held his son tight, rocking him in his arms.

"Yes… yes…" Orion managed to choke out, the rubix cube he had been holding laid forgotten on the ground of his room. "Matt… Matt's been hitting me! I don't know what I did but he's been calling me all sorts of names and I…"

Wizard held his son close, stroking the boy's silver hair.


	54. Older

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 54: Older

"Wizard, can I ask you something?"

Wizard, unchanged by the four decades they had spent together, turned to face her in the bed. Hikari lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling with tired, nervous eyes.

"Of… course…" Wizard replied. Hikari placed her hands on her stomach, pressing them flat against the blankets.

"Am I still pretty?"

Wizard's eyes roved over his wrinkling wife. Crow's feet marred the edges of her eyes, and there were tight lines around the edges of her mouth. She was getting older, wiser, wizened even. The spark in her big brown eyes was not as prevalent anymore.

"Yes… you're the most… beautiful person in the world…"


	55. Beach

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 55: Beach

Hikari liked long walks on the beach.

There was something in the feeling of soft sand beneath your feet, or the way the sun reflected on the edge of the ocean, or the feeling of Wizard's smooth hand in hers that made walking along the beach so enjoyable.

They left footprints in the sand behind them as they walked, and Hikari felt as though everything was perfect. Maybe as perfect as the sun's distorted mauve reflection on the waves of the water as the tide went back and forth. Maybe as perfect as each, white, pale grain of sand squished between her toes.

Maybe as perfect as them. Together. Here in Castanet.

Everything was just perfect, saccharinely so, as they walked along the edges of the tide – _together._


	56. Writing

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 56: Writing

Wizard never knew that Hikari had a journal.

It was, maybe, an invasion of Hikari's privacy to skim through the pages of her journal but Wizard had never been one for social acceptance or norms. Curiosity, mixed with a little deviousness, drove him to the discovery of the thinly bound journal.

He marveled at Hikari's rather childish scrawl.

It was innocent, with big looped l's and curled i's, with twisting elongated shapes and large swirls. It was somewhat adorable, really. An endearing kind of childishness he had expected from his wife.

Green and magma-colored eyes moved back and forth as he read what Hikari had meant for herself. Wizard felt a little dirty, cruel even, for reading Hikari's words, but upon further notice realized that the book wasn't filled with personal secrets or rant-filled diatribes.

No, it was poetry.

And Wizard wasn't sure what he had found more surprising. The fact that she had a diary or the fact that the supposed diary in question was actually little snippets of poetry. Wizard flipped to one of the first few pages, poetry that Hikari had written when she first arrived in Harmonica Town, and found something most intriguing.

_Magic Man_

_Hammering heart, whenever I meet him,_

_Eyes so sad, frown so grim,_

_So mysterious this man of magic,_

_His heart seemed so tragic,_

_During those few minutes that I talk with him,_

_I feel as though I'm falling in love,_

_With a magic man._


	57. Vacation

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 57: Vacation

Cecaniah and Orion ran along the edges of the beach, collecting shells, giggling and laughing as their mother and father watched from the repose of their beach towels. Hikari none-too-subtly touched Wizard's hand and together, watching as Cecaniah showed Orion a tiger-striped, ridged shell, they smiled in contentment of their own lives.


	58. Necklace

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 58: Necklace

The necklace is a gilded chain, chilly in his palm when she hands it to him. Wizard holds it with delicate fingers, as though he'd break it if he dared to bend the metal. It glints in the lights of their house, beautiful and impossible.

"It's a gift," She tells him. Hikari takes a hand of his in hers, smiles. It warms him. "For you to keep, forever."

She has never questioned what he meant by the fact that he'll live longer than her. Hikari only supports. She lives for the now, not for the later.

He sits by her bed and holds her hand as she dies. Hikari's gift catches bits of light as the woman dies. The chain dangles from his neck like a noose.

One hundred years later, Wizard sits alone in their dusty, old abandoned house and holds a gilded chain. It is dirty with age, rusted slightly, but Wizard holds it as he sits on _their _bed with reverence in every movement, breath and thought.

This gift he keeps forever, because it is the only tangible thing he has left of her in this world.


	59. Missives

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 59: Missives

Hikari always woke earlier than him.

On the first day of their marriage, when he awakes from their bed, bleary-eyed and wakened from a nightmare he can't remember, he finds a note on the kitchen table.

It's a love letter. The things Hikari says are sentimental and altruistic, beautifully crafted and almost too saccharine for even him. When he leaves to go shopping for food, he writes her a reply, one with blade-thin letters from where he pushes too hard into the paper.

And when he returns, carrying bags of bread and lettuce and meat for dinner, he finds yet another letter on the table. This reply is sweet as well, filled with symbols and drawn-in smiley faces. Hikari knows nothing of subtlety.

They don't speak of the exchanges that night, eating his cooking. (Not hers, because it is terrible!) But they find themselves settling into something almost too strange. The two leave each other silly little notes, ones they can sink themselves into and giggle about. (Though really, Hikari does most of the giggling)

This habit continues very far into their marriage. Cecaniah and Orion tease them both about it constantly in their later years, but they keep their letters. It's something tangible, Wizard supposes, something physical to show their ever-growing bond.

And it was something they held onto, forever, in transit.


	60. Magic

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 60: Magic

Subtly, with slight hesitation, Wizard touched the edges of Hikari's cheeks. Her eyes fluttered, but remained closed, and Hikari focused instead on the certain thrumming near his fingertips. It was like a pulse, a heartbeat, and she could feel it throughout her skin.

Wizard leaned forward, slowly, his head tilting, eyes shutting. When their lips touched there was a spark, a fire there that made Hikari gasp in surprise. Wizard held her still, and Hikari stilled herself. They kissed, and Hikari felt a wave of that pulsating spark wash over her. It tingled, but it felt wonderful, saccharine.

It was magic.


	61. Song

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 61: Song

Wizard stopped outside the bathroom door.

The song had started sweet and low, laced in Hikari's voice, and had immediately caught his attention when he walked outside their bathroom door. The farmer was taking a shower, and Wizard, who knew she sung in the shower, had never heard her sing before.

It was… nice.

"_Sometimes I feel like,_

_Throwing my hands up in the air,_

_I know I can count,_

_On you,_

_Sometimes I feel like saying,_

_Lord I just don't care,_

_You've got the love to see me through!"_

Wizard smiled, pressing his ear against the wood of the door, anything to hear more of her voice.


	62. Dance

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 62: Dance

The music of the festival played in front of the Church, and everyone took to the square with dance partners, the petals of falling cherry blossoms around them, twirling just as the dancers twirled, twisting as the dancers twisted, swirling as the dancers swirled.

Wizard held one of Hikari's hands, the other settled on her hips. One of Hikari's hands was on his shoulder, the other grasped in his hand. For the moment, as they moved about, uncaring of the smiles around them, mostly from couples old enough to reminisce about their time as a young couple, it seemed to them as though no one else were around.

"I love you." Hikari said, smiling, her eyes never leaving Wizard's.

"Me… too…"


	63. Comfort

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 63: Comfort

Hikari's father was dead.

Wizard look solemnly over at his wife, as she held a four-year-old Cecaniah on her lap, watching as she bowed her head. The service was long and dreadful, a mockery of the beautiful day and the gleaming sun, and when the casket was lowered in the ground, the family left.

Neither had cried the entire time, but when Cecaniah was put to bed and it was just the two of them, alone, in their kitchen, Hikari let herself unravel.

Wizard held her as she sobbed into his shoulder, sobbing and crying and clutching, her tears wet against the bare skin of his neck.

"What… what if I lose _you?" _Her voice cracked; Wizard hugged her tighter. "Or… or Cecaniah? What if—"

"You… are not… going to… lose me." Wizard whispered into her ear, running a hand through her hair. "I… promise."


	64. Compass

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 64: Compass

Hikari is Wizard's compass.

Whenever he felt lost, whenever he realized that soon, terribly soon, he would lose her and his family, she was there to hold his hand, roll her eyes and tell him in short words; _don't worry._

_Don't worry._

Oh, how that had been a mantra so commonly repeated. And he would look at her with narrowed eyes and everything, his heart, his mind, his body, all of it melted when he saw her smile. She guided him throughout the rest of her life, showed him that memories would never die.

He isn't lost when she's around.


	65. Reflection

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 65: Reflection

His grandchild has her eyes.

Orion's daughter, Mina, has Hikari's eyes. Mina held onto her father's hand, clutching it as she looked up at the strange man whom she'd never seen before speak with her papa.

The strange man has her papa's eyes, has his hair and nose. And he wouldn't stop staring at her, locking eyes, peering into them.

Papa said, "You came back."

"I… have…" The strange man looked away, as if ashamed. "I have… let my despair go on… long enough."

"Cici is dead." Papa glanced down and Mina hid behind his legs, wishing the strange man would look anywhere but at her eyes. Maybe if she closed them…?

"I… know." The strange man looked up at papa, tentatively. "I… was at… the funeral."

Papa pulled her forward, placed her in front of him, hands on her shoulders.

"Mina," He says, brushing her silver hair behind her ears. "This is Wizard."

Wizard looks into her eyes, and she whispers, shyly, "…Hi."

He smiles, the smile is brusque and rough, as though it was a smile not quite used.

"She… has Hikari's… eyes…"

Mina looked down, at the ground, at Wizard's worn shoes.

Papa looked sad; why was he sad? "I know."


	66. Freedom

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 66: Freedom

He had lived a life of introversion. Trapped within his thoughts, a prisoner to many things. A prisoner to his abilities, a prisoner to the Master's harsh studies, a prisoner to himself and his recoiled emotions.

And then he met Hikari.

It was like… setting free a bird who had never been out of a cage before, throwing it from the precipice of a cliff and watching, waiting to see if it would learn to spread its wings and fly. And he did, he had flapped his wings, afraid of anything and everything, but he had Hikari to help him.

Slowly, very slowly, he cracked open the shell he had driven himself into, bade Hikari to be the key to his cage, implored her to be the one who threw him from the precipice.

And here he was, by her side, with her in all things.

Here Wizard stood: free.


	67. Graduate

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 67: Graduate

They say that the moment that a parent realizes their child is growing up is the saddest moment of all. And it was, for Wizard and Hikari, as they sat with Cecaniah and her husband, Van, watching as Orion stood and gathered up his diploma, winking at a smiling Angie as he passed her by.

Wizard looked down at his hands as a wave of applause from the residents of Castanet erupted, nearly smiled to himself because his children were finally getting older, and nearly frowned because the years were going by way too fast.

At the party for the graduates, the parents mingled as their children danced and sang, and Wizard watched as Orion held out a hand for Angie, Candace and Julius' daughter, and he smiled when the violet-haired girl took his hand with a giggle and a girlish laugh.

And as he stood by Hikari, holding her close like she would disappear at any given moment, watching as Orion devilishly led Angie along in the dance, Wizard heard Hikari say,

"They've both finally grown up, haven't they?"

The two glanced at Van and Cecaniah, both deep in discussion about something or another, like the scholars the two of them were, and noticed Van's hand atop Cecaniah's.

"I… am proud of… them…" Said Wizard.

"Me too."


	68. Cecaniah

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 68: Cecaniah

Hikari sees Cecaniah and all she can think of is Wizard.

Her hair, long and silvery and beautifully braided, streams behind her as she chases Orion. Screaming for the sibling to return her novel. She's not as quiet as her father. Cecaniah is loud when she wants to be, and she never really wants to be. Hikari thinks Orion may be the only person in the whole world who has heard Cecaniah yell.

The way she peruses books, carefully, sometimes reading three at a time, is so much like Wizard's habits. Cecaniah likes coffee too, but she can make it just as badly as her mother, and that perhaps is all she's inherited from Hikari. The worst cooking ability in the world.

Hikari sees the way Cecaniah is so careful around Van, skirting around him, avoiding his attempts to pursue her, and it reminds her of Wizard all the more.


	69. Orion

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 69: Orion

When Wizard looks at Orion, he sees Hikari.

Not in appearance. His hair is silver, spiked and ruffled from misadventure. Orion, named after the constellation, has his nose and the angle of his face. But the boy does have Hikari's eyes. Those big brown doe eyes one could get lost in. It's the only outward thing of Hikari's that Orion has. But that's not what is resembled between the two of them.

They're adventurers. Orion and Hikari like exploration. They like to traverse the Mines and Fugue Forest, like to spend time rolling through Flute Fields and fishing in the ocean. All in a day. Orion likes to skive his chores and shrugs off punishment with a roll of his shoulders. He's reckless, he's bad at baking…

And he is definitely Hikari's son.


	70. Mina

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 70: Mina

When Wizard looked upon his first grandchild, he saw not him or Hikari.

He saw _them. _Together.

Mina had Hikari's eyes, the exact shape and color, with her long dark lashes. If he looked closer, he would see that she had Hikari's nose, too. Mina had short, silver hair, but it wasn't straight like his. It had Hikari's light curls, her waves that made cute formations around the frame of her face. She liked books, enjoyed climbing into trees to read them from a branch, feet dangling below her. Mina liked to run through Flute Fields with her littler cousins, and jump in the rivers and catch fish with her bare hands.

She liked the stars, she liked to lay on her back and pick out constellations. The Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, Sirius and the North Star. Virgo and Libra.

Mina liked coffee. Liked to steal a sip of Orion's when he wasn't looking.

Yes, there wasn't solely Hikari or Wizard, as far as Wizard could tell, in the grandchild.

There was _them._


	71. Feathers

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 71: Feathers

Hikari held a long, black feather perilously within her grip. If one were to look upon her face, they would've described her as being… _devious. _Like she knew something they didn't know, and she held the feather with exactness, as though what they didn't know that she knew had something to do with said feather.

And it did, of course. Why else would Hikari be holding a long, black feather? Not for cosmetic reasons, that is assured! The girl moved about Harmonica Town, smiling and waving to her fellow neighbors as she passed, stopping once to chat with Candace, but eventually she found herself standing in front of Wizard's tiny little home.

Hikari smiled deviously to herself, pressing the feather against her bottom lip. Her eyes seemed to glimmer with a certain mischievousness, and finally she creaked open the door of Wizard's home to peer inside.

Wizard stood in front of his crystal ball, looking into it with great concentration. He didn't notice her come in, and Hikari was thankful for that.

It made what she was about to do all the easier.

Hikari skirted around the perimeter of Wizard's home, moving past towering bookcases, stocked with books about the stars, until she was right behind the man in question, holding the feather above her head like a murderer would hold a knife in a bad serial killer flick. And then, finally, a drop of sweat rolling down the edge of her cheek, Hikari held the feather just below Wizard's jawline, slowly, carefully, so he wouldn't notice.

And she attempted to tickle him, with a flick of her wrist.

Wizard froze, his hands wavering above the crystal ball, and Hikari grabbed him from behind, attempting to tickle him viciously. The two fell in a tumble to the ground, with Hikari straddling him, and she dug her fingers into his armpits, eyes closed shut.

"What… are you… doing…?" Wizard asked, bewildered, eyes wide. Hikari cracked open one eye, looking at him, terribly disappointed.

Wizard was not ticklish.

"I… wanted to hear you laugh?"


	72. Blackout

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 72: Blackout

The lights went out.

First, a flicker, something which made both Hikari and Wizard glance up from whatever they were doing in confusion. It had been storming outside, with strong winds that shook the trees and howled past the windows.

"Power's out." Said Hikari, frowning, once the television guttered out. She'd been looking forward to seeing what happened to Evey Hammond next. Wizard, in the dark, squinted in an attempt to make out the words of his novel. This new one was quite strange. It was a twist on a fairy tale, involving a young girl with a strange grandmother, who was falling in love with a man who could only be described as wolfish.

"What… should we… do?" Asked Wizard, looking up at his wife. He could maker out her outline in the darkness, there but thin.

Hikari looked at him, and Wizard swore he saw something mischievous in the glint of her eyes, like the glint of a cat's eyes. She grinned, waggling her eyebrows, and said, in a tone as light as a feather,

"Want to snuggle?"

Wizard blinked at her, surprised in part by her audacity, but he acquiesced, placing his novel on the table and moving in three long steps to sit beside her on the couch. Hikari snuggled against him, smiling deeply into his chest as she wound her arms around his neck. Wizard held her close, holding her tightly against him as they settled onto the couch.

They stayed like that for a long time.


	73. Fruit

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 73: Fruit

Hikari and Wizard both sat languorously on the couch, nestling a bowl of fruit between them. Hikari yawned, pressing herself against Wizard's chest. And slowly, suddenly, Wizard reached over and plucked a strawberry from the bowl of fruit, and raised it to Hikari's lips.

She giggled, snorting, before taking the strawberry in her mouth, ungainly biting into the fruit. Red juice dribbled down her chin and she was about to wipe it away herself when Wizard wiped her chin for her with a napkin.

The brunette liked this. A _lot._

Now it was her turn. She plucked a grape from the bowl, and raised it to Wizard's lips, and he took it from her fingers with a slow bite, wrapping an arm around her tighter.

It was just another night, relaxing after the farm work and his studying, a bowl of fruit pressed between them.


	74. World

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 74: World

He meant the world to her.

There was so much about him that was broken. By things he'd never told her of. And she wanted to help him, to hold him and kiss him and remind him that she was there for him, always. She wanted so much to be there for him, as he was for her. And she would be.

She would protect him, because she loved him more than anything in the world.


	75. Dark

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 75: Dark

Something is bothering him. She can tell, because there's a line between his eyebrows while he cuts up carrots. She can tell because he's quieter than usual, and he hasn't said more than two words since she's come home from Harmonica Town.

Something is bothering Wizard, and it is bothering Hikari.

"What's wrong?" She asks, when they're eating and he doesn't touch his food, simply staring at with a sulky expression.

He looks up, something tugging at his lips, "Do you… regret… being with me…?"

Hikari stops, cocking an eyebrow, and murmurs, "That's a silly question."

"I… need… to know…"

"No." Hikari wonders what could be bothering him so much that he needs to ask that. "Why?"

"I… want to know… if you are… happy with me…"

And now she is truly confused. Utterly and completely bewildered.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because…" And he looks into her eyes without preamble. "Because… you deserve… so much more…"


	76. Fireworks

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 76: Fireworks

They exploded in beautiful arrays of color. Green against the night sky, red brushing the clouds in neat circles. It was beautiful, and terrifying, for Hikari had never quite liked fireworks. There was something about the danger of being near them that made them seem so… frightening.

Wizard had an arm around her waist, holding her tight as they sat upon a hill, watching the display together. Hikari peered at him, smiling. Wizard was her fear-repellent. She always felt she could do anything if he was beside her. It made facing her fears more bearable, regardless of how silly they were.


	77. Birthday

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 77: Birthday

"Happy birthday…" In his hands was a velvet box. "Hikari…"

Hikari stood from her seat in the kitchen, placing the pen and her work down. She was surprised, pleasantly, smiling when she took the box from Wizard. It was smooth to the touch, fuzzy, as all velvet is.

"You didn't have to get me a gift," Said Hikari, but her heart was warmed by the gesture. "I… you're the best gift I could have."

Wizard flushed, looking away, like a shrinking violet, "Just… open it…"

Hikari opened the box, and inside, was a beautiful silver locket. It was oval-shaped, beautifully engraved with tiny, detailed flowers. The chain that it dangled from was silver as well, cool to the touch. She gasped, pulling it from the box.

"It's beautiful."

Wizard reached out, touching Hikari's hands lightly. She ripped her gaze from the locket to look up at Wizard, and he smiled at her. Tentatively. "Open it…"

Hikari opened the locket, with some difficulty, and inside, was a picture of him, Cecaniah and Orion. And a picture of singularly him, looking up at her with smiling eyes.

She pressed a kiss to his lips, and murmured her thanks, holding the locket tightly within her fist.


	78. Always

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 78: Always

"Please… please don't… leave…" Wizard was crying, tears running down the edges of his cheeks. Hikari looked up at him from her spot on the bed. She'd wanted them all to leave, and both Cecaniah and Orion had acquiesced, filing into the hall outside.

Hikari squeezed his hand, and when she moved, her locket glinted. Wizard looked at her, looking into her brown eyes with fear in his own.

"I'm with you," She rasped, holding his hand tightly. "Always."

And she closed her eyes for the last time.


	79. Wishes

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 79: Wishes

"Did you see that?" Hikari gasped, pointing at the sky. She and Wizard were sitting on a hill overlooking Flute Fields, looking at the stars in peace. All of a sudden, however, the sky had streaked orange.

"A… shooting star…?" Whispered Wizard, looking up.

Hikari clutched her hands together tightly bowing her head, the movement done so fast that it made Wizard jump.

"What are you… doing?"

She didn't answer for a few seconds, and then unclasped her hands, frowning at him, replying, "Wishing, of course!"

A small smile touched Wizard's lips, and he said, "What… did you… wish for?"

She winked at him, and replied, gently, "Now, that's a secret."


	80. Swings

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 80: Swings

Wizard watched them from afar.

Hikari pushed Cecaniah gently, and she swung into the air, high, high, higher. Her laughter was gentle, sweet, a music all on its own. Hikari was laughing as well, and Wizard sat close by, on the checkered picnic blanket they had brought with them, a thick novel across his lap.

He enjoyed the moment, wondering, as he always did, if it would be the last.


	81. Fishing

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 81: Fishing

They sat on the edge of the pier, pants rolled up to their knees and toes dangling in the waters below. She'd promised him she'd teach him how to fish, and here they were, by the pond next to her farm, underneath the sweltering summer sun with fishing poles in their hands.

Her hands danced over his as she explained how to hold the rod, and he was distracted by those hands as she talked. Hikari had the most delicate hands, lightly calloused by farmwork but still delicate. She had pretty skin, tanned beneath the blistering heat.

"—And you hold it like… Wizard? Are you even listening to me?"

He was startled back to reality by her voice, and looked up into her face, blushing.

"Of… course…"

She had a delicate smile, too.


	82. Scope

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 82: Scope

"And this… series of… stars is known as… Orion's Belt…" Wizard pointed at a series of stars in the sky that did, indeed, look like a belt. Beside him, Hikari, heavily pregnant with her second child, sat.

"Orion…" She breathed, touching her stomach. Wizard glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Hikari….?" He asked, tentatively.

"Orion…" It looked as though she were tasting the name, letting it roll off her tongue. "A nice, strong name. For a boy, I mean." She smiled, feeling her stomach.

Wizard looked at her, smiling a rare smile. "I… like it…"


	83. Foundation

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 83: Foundation

She wasn't sure where this strange attraction had come from. The Wizard was nothing like her. He was quiet, spoke in barely more than mumbled whispers, and stayed cooped up in his house until it was incredibly early in the morning, when the stars were out, and he could pretend he could reach them.

But he fascinated her. There was something about him that caught Hikari off guard. He was her opposite, something that completed her. Like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle in reverse, recreating the entire picture. Finishing it.

That was the foundation of their relationship.

His curiosity about her.

Her fascination with him.


	84. Thought

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 84: Thought

Wizard wasn't sure how it happened, or when, really. Hikari had just snaked her way into his thoughts, a slithery thing that wouldn't leave. He supposed it was love, because love was a very, very sneaky entity that enjoyed the curling into of thought, grasping hold in its parasitic way, sucking everything out until there was nothing left except _for _love.

Whatever, whenever it, had happened, Wizard found Hikari forever in his thought. He found himself looking forward to her visits, which was strange and weird, because he had never felt anything like this before. He almost didn't like it, but if he said that he wondered at the fact that saying that would be saying a lie. And one should never tell lies.

But indeed, she had enraptured him, like a snake-charmer to a snake, and he would have done anything for her. Because what he felt for her flew past the walls he had put up to keep other people out, wanting only to be by himself and with his telescope, and it was strange and weird and not unpleasant at all.

"This… feeling…" He said, as she stood there, smiling, visiting him as she always did. "How… strange…"


	85. Castle

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 85: Castle

"I used to want to live in a castle." Hikari told him. "When I was a little girl."

"Do... you still... want to...?" He asked her.

"No." She replied, grasping for his hand. "Do you wanna know why?"

"Why...?" Wizard inquired, squeezing her hand."

"Because I already feel like a Queen."


	86. School

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 86: School

"I'm scared!" Whined Cecaniah, clutching at the backpack in her hands. "What if... what if no one likes me?"

Hikari chuckled as Wizard held Cecaniah close, pulling her tightly towards him. Cecaniah tried to push him away, mumbling that she was a big girl now and didn't need her daddy's hugs. There was a small chuckle from Wizard.

"Cici..." He said, using the nickname for her. "Everyone will... like you... I... promise..."

"But-"

"You'll be fine," Said Hikari, running a hand through Cecaniah's silvery hair. Wizard let go of their daughter. "_We _promise."

"But-"

Hikari laughed, pushing her daughter out the door slightly. The road to Harmonica Town was waiting. "Go on," Hikari whispered, brushing strands of hair behind Cecaniah's ear. "Tell us all about it when you come back."

When the door closed behind their daughter, Hikari turned to her husband, a slightly worried look on her face.

"Wizard, what if-"

"She'll be... fine..." He whispered, pressing a kiss to Hikari's forehead. "She's... the best daughter... one could have..."


	87. Pregnancy

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 87: Pregnancy

It moved.

Wizard _could _feel it kick. A small smile spread to his lips, and a tiny gasp escaped his lips. He _could _feel their child, twisting inside Hikari's stomach. Hikari laughed, her hands holding his.

"Ours..." He said, simply. Hikari's hands were very warm atop his, and he took her hands in his, feeling the smooth callouses.

"Our daughter." Hikari confirmed, the look on her face was one he had never seen before.

She moved again.


	88. Frei

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 88: Frei

"I'm sorry..."

She was crying, her head tucked into the crook of his neck, fingers laced into his arms like barbed wire, tight and painful. It was obvious that she didn't want to let go, obvious that letting go meant losing him.

"Why-" Her voice caught in her throat, and Hikari choked on her sobs. "Why didn't you tell _me before?"_

_"I'm sorry."_

"What if," She stopped, took in a deep breath. Everything seemed to shake in that breath, and Wizard found himself holding onto her more tightly. "_When," _She amended, the word as soft as sin. "I die...?"

"I'll still..." He touched her cheek, brushed back pieces of hair. "Be here."

"I don't want t-to leave you here, alone."

"I know..." Whispered Wizard, softly, pressing a kiss to the bridge of her nose. "I know."


	89. Train

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 89: Train

Hikari smiled to herself, feeling the weight of Wizard's head on her shoulder. They were traveling out to a different town to meet her parents, and had taken the train in the nearest city close to Harmonica Town. Of course, it was their luck that it would be a very long five hour ride to her parents' house.

And Wizard, whose sleep patterns bordered on the bizarre and unhealthy, saw the very long five hour ride as an opportunity to catch up on some missed sleep. He'd fallen asleep first leaning against the window, and then again with his head leaning entirely back so his lips parted ever-so-tantalizingly-slightly, and then, by the Powers That Be, his head found itself resting perfectly upon her shoulder, much to the joy of a now madly grinning Hikari. It was so cute, she thought, she could scream.

But she returned to her book, flipping the pages, and shifting herself so Wizard could be most comfortable.

It would be a very long ride.


	90. Winged

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 90: Winged

He sees her in his dreams sometimes, when he allows himself to sleep. She has wings, she stands amidst the ghosts of her daughter and son, and they watch him from a place he cannot reach.

Wizard wishes he could die, just to be with them.


	91. Innocent

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 91: Innocent

It was a dark night, with the two of them laying in the others arms when Wizard had told her the story.

"How did you become immortal?" Hikari had asked, curled into the curve of his stomach, arms stretched around his neck. He had frozen, shifted uneasily in her arms.

"I... it's not... a very good... story..." He whispered to her in the dark of the night, where it was just them and no one else.

"I want to know. Please."

He pulled her closer, as if afraid she would disappear in his arms. Wizard didn't like to remember this.

"My... master was... dying..." He started. "He... had an obsession with... immortality... which extended past... the preservation of... his own life..." He took in a deep, shuddering breath. "He wanted... me to... live..."

"I'm sorry." She touched his cheek. It felt warm.

"No... it's okay..." He sighed, pulled her even closer. "He used... a spell of... sorts to... keep me alive... it went awry..." Her hand touched his neck now. "And... now I am... immortal..."

"I'm sorry," She said again. "That is a bad story."

"It's... fine... I wouldn't have met... you..." He whispered. She could feel his breath, cold and chilly against her shoulders. "If it... hadn't happened..."


	92. Love

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 92: Love

It never fades.

To be honest, she isn't sure where it began. Maybe with the first step to his house, the thrumming feeling in Hikari's stomach, the thought of meeting someone new, someone different.

Maybe it began with his eyes, and his face, and the slow way he said his sentences, deliberate pauses because he never truly liked to speak to anyone.

Maybe it began the first time their fingers touched, the slight shock of electricity that made her flinch slightly.

Maybe it began with him, because she had never felt anything like this before, about anyone.

However it began, it never would end.


	93. Candlelight

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 93: Candlelight

The light of the candles played shadows on her face. It gave Hikari a dream-like appeal, something untouchable _and beautiful_, an ethereal sort of beauty that he could not, should not, be a part of.

Shadows pooled in the hollows of her hooded eyes, the dips in her collarbone, the concaves between her fingers. He drank it all in, every detail, from the light, butterfly lashes to the way her eyes glimmered in the light, a ghostly brown that filled out in the darkness.

"You're beautiful..." He whispered. Her fingers brushed the bumps of his knuckles. "I... love you..."

The shadows pooled in her dimples, too. She whispered back.

"I love you too, Wizard."


	94. Thanksgiving

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 94: Thanksgiving

He helped her.

"No..." His hand grasped her supple wrist, and she looked up at him, looking a great deal like someone who'd accidentally run over a small, fuzzy kitten. "You're... adding too much... garlic..."

It was their first Thanksgiving together. Hikari was heavy with _their _daughter, and the two of them were in the kitchen, working up a feast that would keep them full and happy for _days. _The fields had been filled with all sorts of vegetables and fruits, the trees practically dripping with apples and grapes and peaches. She'd always complained that Fall brought the most work, but with him at her side, the load was easier. Hikari had appreciated it a great deal.

But, it was still work. And Wizard _really, really _didn't want to let all that hard work go to waste.

"I _hate _cooking." Hikari groused, pulling her hand back and removing some of the garlic. "_Especially _on Thanksgiving."

"It... does seem... a bit... of a waste..." Replied Wizard, looking down at the pots on the stove, the sashimi in front of him.

"Not if I get to eat it with you."


	95. Snowflake

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 95: Snowflake

"You're like a snowflake." She told him.

"How... so...?" He had asked.

"There is no one in the world like you," Said Hikari. "You're unique. Special. A snowflake."

"The same... could be said... about you..." Wizard replied. "Who else... is as sweet... or as... kind as you...?"

"And who else is as intelligent, or thoughtful, or _snowflake-y _as you?"


	96. Heartbeat

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 96: Heartbeat

* * *

Her ears are against his chest.

_Ba-thump. Ba-thum-thump._

The sound is beautiful and familiar, mysterious and unknown.

_Ba-thump._

It is her lullaby, the very thing, the only thing, that lulls her to sleep.

_Ba-thump. Ba-thump._

He is real, because of this. He isn't a dream. He won't disappear.

_Ba-thump._

Hikari closed her eyes.


	97. Sight

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 97: Sight

"I'm dying." She says, raspy. Her fingers reach for the glass of water, and she finds it just out of reach. They curl on the edge of the nightstand. "I'm so sorry."

He tips the glass to her lips. She drinks, and he says nothing.

"I can feel it, Gale," She says his name, his true name, with such softness he almost thought that she had not said it. "I can see it, almost. Something on the edge of my sight…"

He says nothing.

"Please," She tries to touch his hand, and barely graces the fingers. He stares at them. "Please don't leave me. I don't… I don't want to die, Gale."

Nothing.

"Find a way," Her voice chokes, on sobs, or the silence, or maybe on the fact that he simply cannot look at her. "You can, can't you? You can do anything."

He says nothing.

"You…" The tears roll down her cheeks. "Please. _Please."_


	98. Rain

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 98: Rain

It rains when they are on the way back home. Hikari giggles and laughs when it just begins to _pour, _and holds Wizard closer to her. He fixes his jacket so they can huddle beneath it.

This close, he can feel her heat, her _warmth. _It makes him smile, despite the rain.


	99. Visitation

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 99: Visitation

Her grave is a lonely place.

Flowers long-dead are buried in an urn, and the shade of the tree blocks the sunlight. This place is a desolate place, Wizard thought, and she shouldn't have been buried here. Hikari had deserved more, deserved a grave where fresh roses could be placed there each and ever day, a place where the sun could kiss the grass above her grave, a place that people would visit often and always, spending their respects to the woman that had brought them life.

But so many years had passed, and now the only visitor to her grave was him.

This was a lonely place, her grave.


	100. Together

Watching The Stars Together

Drabble 100: Together

The world ends.

Fire and hatred and war. It is a place Hikari would have despised, had the world not claimed her a millennia ago, when everything had been fine, when the world had been at peace with itself and with humanity. When he takes his final breath, when the magic that had taken hold of him so very long ago finally loses its grip, Wizard thinks he can hear the Harvest God and Goddess screaming.

It ends, and there is darkness. But there is a small light. A tiny light, a glimmer in the distance, and he follows the well-worn path to it.

She's waiting there, at the end, dressed in her white wedding gown, as young as she had always been to him.

Hikari smiles, outstretches her hands. Cecaniah and Orion are playing by the river inside this garden, this paradise. There are roses at Hikari's feet, and Wizard's careful not to step on them.

They hold one another, and he feels the tears run down his face.

"Welcome home."


End file.
